K-Line’s CEO and President Yukikazu Myochin has reaffirmed its commitment to liquefied natural gas (LNG), saying it and other alternative fuels are vital to the carrier achieving its 2050 environmental goals.
In his annual new year’s address, Myochin said that K-Line will launch ‘LNG+’ in the next 12 months as it looks to meet the “2030 environmental goals set out by the IMO”.
This refers to stated goals from the IMO to cut CO2 emissions by 40% by 2030 and 70% by 2050.
“We cannot the IMO’s targets by simply switching diesel oil to LNG,” he said.
“We must continue to study new technologies, such as self-flying energy kites that utilize wind power.
“Furthermore, we will accelerate research in alternative fuels such as ammonia and methanation fuels.”
As well as focusing on green technological innovations, K-Line will look to improve its environmental operations through artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT), which is part of its own ‘Environmental Vision 2050’, a plan to drastically cut carbon emissions while maintaining efficiencies.
To that end it unveiled plans to build an LNG-powered car carrier at the end of 2019, in addition to its participation in a LNG fuel supply business in Singapore with Shell.